Lead Deeper: Equipping You to Empower the Young Women You Lead

By Rondi Pogue

Gives youth leaders the ability to help young women recognize and deal with the root of their issues

Provides youth leaders techniques to help young women become emotionally and spiritually healthy

Equips female youth leaders to help young women deal with the lies of societal culture in order to find freedom

Takes youth leaders’ mentorship to a deeper level

• Language: English
• Publisher: Morgan James Faith
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781631952678

Rondi Pogue

Rondi Pogue currently resides in San Diego, California. She has a degree from San Diego Christian College in Biblical Studies with an emphasis in youth ministry. She worked as a High School Director for over a decade. Rondi founded and runs Unveiling, a nonprofit organization that empowers women around the world to overcome the lies of needing to conform to culture and instead embrace who God created them to be. Through Unveiling, Rondi has put on six conferences, ministers to incarcerated women, published three devotionals and a small group curriculum, and is currently in the process of creating a podcast.

Book preview

Chapter 1:

Difference Maker

Life is hard, and it comes at us fast! I think most of us begin to realize this after college, but I’m noticing more and more high school students learning this early on. High school students are transitioning from a state of innocence to a greater understanding of reality and responsibility earlier than most of us did. They are beginning to develop an awareness of what is really going on around them. New feelings are starting to arise, and they are questioning themselves in new ways. That is why working with youth is so important.

Here is one of the great things about youth: They tend to be more open, more teachable, and definitely more moldable than adults. And while they may look a lot like adults, emotionally and cognitively, they are not. The older we get, the less we want to deal with our hurts and struggles because their presence has created deep pain. Youth, on the other hand, haven’t had the years to allow the hurts to sink deep and grow. They still tend to have childlike faith, and their soil is soft, making them open to change, healing, and correction. That’s why working with youth can be so exciting—typically, they are willing to enter into the messy parts of life and do the hard work.

Young women need help and guidance from adults who truly care about them. Far too often, few people are pouring into their lives emotionally. And the adults who are supposed to do this (specifically, their parents) are not the ones teenagers want to hear from. I have worked with youth since 2002, and as each year goes by, it’s become more and more apparent how important it is for students to have youth pastors, mentors, youth volunteers, and youth leaders in their lives. As the book Sticky Faith discovered,¹ Each young person is greatly benefited when surrounded by a team of five adults. We call this the new 5:1 ratio. They found that students are more likely to keep living out their faith and make wise decisions when they have five adults pouring into their lives. You play a significant role in these students’ lives because of your investment in them.

Working with youth can be incredibly tiring while also being so much fun! It can sometimes be a thankless job, and we often wonder if teenagers are even listening. So, before we continue, let me say this: THANK YOU! Thank you for the time, energy, resources, and love you give to today’s youth. God is using you—please hear that loud and clear! I have countless stories of students coming to me years later and telling me how what I taught on a Sunday morning or a trip or a one-on-one conversation that I don’t even remember has impacted their lives.

Just the other day, I was at the gym, and I ran into a woman whose sons were in my youth group five years prior. She and I caught up on life and then went on our ways. Later that week, I ran into her again, and she said, I told my sons that I saw you and they totally remembered you. One of them said, ‘I remember one Sunday she taught on comparison!’ I can’t tell you what someone else spoke on five years ago, let alone what I spoke on five years ago—so how did he remember? I was on a high for the next week because I was so encouraged to hear how God had used me. I had no idea that talk impacted someone’s life, and at least one person still remembered it years later.

I know we don’t do the work solely to see the fruit of our labor. We do the work because God has called us to do it and we want to be obedient. But I pray that God allows you to see the fruit of your labor. Seeing the fruit of my labor has encouraged me and helped me to press in and press on, especially during seasons of exhaustion and discouragement.

This is a book I wish I could’ve read when I worked in full-time youth ministry. I didn’t have the time or energy to sit down and read an average-size book. I wanted a practical book that I could quickly read, relate to, and use as a tool for the girls I worked with. My hope and prayer is that this book will enable and empower you so you can enable and empower your students to move beyond their surface issues and deal with the root causes. This is the only way to truly help them with the problems they face. I’m sure your heart is the same as mine: We want to help young women learn how to fight the battles and lies they face and truly live in